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Tonad
Tonad is the second village founded on The Land, in LY 225. It is situated on First Land at roughly 6° south latitude and 121° west longitude. Its population as of the 905 census was 40,138 humans. It lies near the point where Drop River emerges from a roughly 500 mile underground pass, at the southeastern corner of Drop River Forest. In 222, a new type of wagon was developed for traveling farther outside First Village than anyone had ever gone, though it wasn't until the next year that explorers began searching for a place to establish the Land's second village. They cleared a path southwestward through First River Forest, eventually arriving at Drop River. (The forest surrounding this river, for which it was named, might actually be said to have been part of First River Forest prior to the path being cleared.) Construction of the new village was completed in 225, and the settlers named it Tonad, though there is no record of the name's derivation (it is not believed to be a subword, but rather a random sound they agreed upon). Upon the naming of the village, the type of wagon which had been developed three years earlier and used in getting there was dubbed the "Tonadian wagon." It was also when the settlers reached the area where they founded Tonad, that they discovered the existence of cattle, which in the centuries to come would become an important livestock animal across the Land. Shortly after the founding of Tonad, miners there discovered a new metal which they called "gliscendt." Tonadian smiths soon began using this metal in the minting of two new denominations of coins, the half-piece and the twenty-piece. In 360, gliscendt would be mixed with gold for the minting of 100-piece coins. Since the establishment of the Second Order and the Treasury Department in 905, Tonad has been the home of one of only three official mints on the Land (the other two being in First Village and Kimrin). The Land's first postal service was established in Tonad in 231, and its success led to the establishment of many other such services in every village, in the following centuries. In 235, stonecutters from Tonad began providing stones to fill in holes along the dirt path between Tonad and First Village, and by 255, the Land's first inter-village road had been completely paved with stones. It came to be known as the "Tonadian Way." (As of yet, there is only one other inter-village road on the Land, between Kurok and Pritt.) Tonad is also known for the introduction of the term "bladesmith," a type of smith that specialized in the production of blades (see weapons). Blades were being used increasingly in the committing of crimes, which led to the establishment of the Land's first police department, in 238. A few years later, in 242, First Village established its own police department, and every subsequently founded village would have its own PD. It should also be noted that in 899, during the Coming of the Order, gangs in various villages began to increase their activities and become more organized than they had ever been. Some remained single-village gangs, while others became inter-village gangs. The most prominent independent gang in Tonad is Ass-Kickers Unlimited. The Land's two major inter-village gangs, LandOrder and InterGang also have branches in Tonad, and a coup within the latter, in 912, led to the establishment of the Land's third major inter-village gang, the Illuminati, which is headquartered in Tonad. Ever since the late 220s/early 230s, Tonad has had a reputation for being one of the seediest villages on the Land, a reputation which is stronger now than ever. However, Tonadians generally refute many of the claims against it, and indeed, there is still much about it which commends it as a place to live. (And of course, there is plenty of crime in almost every other village on the Land, whether or not it is true that there is more crime in Tonad than elsewhere.) The second World Fair was held in Tonad in 904. It should be noted that there has sometimes been some confusion as to the pronunciation of the name "Tonad": tō'năd or tō·näd. The former is the most commonly used, and generally accepted as correct, particularly by Tonadians themselves; however, there are some who use the latter. At some point, exactly when is not recorded anywhere, including the O'Gas, a spirit commented to a spirit-talker that a similar debate had once existed on Earth concerning how to pronounce the word "tomato" (tomayto/tomahto). The spirit-talker (whose name is not recorded) must have passed on this information to friends, and over time the idea spread, so that "Tonæd/Tonahd" eventually became a common expression, used to express the belief that whatever difference of opinion or semantic distinction is being debated is of no great importance. People who live in Tonad are referred to as "Tonadians." Ever since the creation of the Land, the people of this planet have been referred to as Landians; upon the founding of Tonad, that village's settlers decided that there should be a name for the people of each village, designating where they're from. So, "Tonadian" became the first such designation, and it soon inspired the designation "First Villagers." Any time subsequent villages were founded, their settlers decided what to call themselves. It is most common to simply add "ian" to the the village's name, though there are occasional variations. Also, the people of Sorret (the next village founded after Tonad) became the first to alter the pronunciation of a village's name when adding a suffix, by changing the sound of the ending vowel-consonant pairing. As with the word "Landian," the designations used for villagers could be used for things other than people; usually anything that was from a given village, though there could be other reasons for the bestowing of a designation. For example, Tonadian wagons were developed in First Village, but received their name based on the purpose of their existence (which ended up, initially, being the founding of Tonad). Category:Places